Catacombs - how do you think?

[Asterixxx]

As sharkith said it requires group co-operation and skill.
we are lucky enough to have a group that know each other well, we talk on teamspeak everyday and help each other with everything, so we know what each player brings to the group.
The outcome of having a group that understands each other and understands instructions meant that we flew through catacombs last night, aquiring 20 items and killing the Lord in less than half an hour of when we first started moving from the Underground forest portal stone.

[Heta]

I love the instances, since they are uber for pl

On alb we use 1 necro, 2 icewiz, 1 fop bb, 4 alts.

Last time I did it we got 20-45 in 8h (did it in 2 seasions) takes about 15 min to kill all the mobs in there, then pause 5 min for reset, yes could disband group and port in and group up from inside to ignore the reset timer but I like the 5 min pauses.

[Xest]

Personally I feel Catacombs was a bit lacking in content and Darkness Rising is DEFINETELY lacking in content. TOA was great because of the amount of content, but flawed in it's implementation of the content, I like gaining abilities for doing a series of short quests in ToA but some of those quests require too many people, take too long or are too hard to get to and that's the fundamental issue with ToA. If DR gave out all CLs from a series of mini ToA like quests that are all instanced - i.e. require 8 players max then it would be absolutely perfect.

I think ToA still needs a lot of fixing, ML XP should just be removed, it serves no beneficial purpose whatsoever. Scrolls need to drop more or make it so they can be purchased from some NPCs or some such and MLs still need cutting down in the amount of players required, for example, ML4.2 - just cut the amount of mobs in play there so it can be done with a much smaller amount of players, the same goes for say, ML6.9.

Catacombs is good for levelling and a low level expansion was needed for that but I'm no impressed that all realms share zones which hence creates a hell of a lot of annoying zoning, it should've been like SI - an entirely individual land for each realm, with no zones splitting them up and the instances just like dungeons in the landscape like old school dungeons are and like task dungeons are.

I think the reason Catacombs and DR are lacking content is because Mythic are downsizing their content team despite what they say - even NF and Foundations which are free expansions seemed to have more content and work put into them than DR does now. ToA was bigger than SI at least but it was a LOT more buggy - is this because they tried to do more with the same size team instead of extending the size of the team to deal with it? DR is just tiny in comparison to all previous expansions, in fact it's pretty much just an artwork expansion, there's hardly any new code or exciting intelligent new encounters in there whatsoever.

[Sharkith]

I think I can see what you mean about the content because I know a good few people were very dissappointed that there was not a much bigger change. Open zones like the frontlines especially closer to the boss mobs are a challenge for a decent group because the repop rate is so high. The point is they are doable if you get a decent group and it is nice to recapture that group experience that vanished for me personally once I hit ToA.

As Asterixxx said last night we returned with an adjusted setup and managed to cut right through to the Warlord very quickly but that was only possible after the previous recon session. It remains challenging enough and the items are of high utility to help finish off templates.

So yes I agree the content is not significantly different but there is a depth in the design of the exisitng system and how they used it. So far I have found it to be very well balanced and quite enjoyable to play. I am looking forward to tackling Darkspire, but all in its own time.

[Radu]

I like catacombs, it is clearly designed after WoW, the end mobs designed for raids and not for farm bots, good exp quests. I dont like ToA's spawn rates, drop rates, it is simply not rewarding, and bothers me many mobs soloable.
However. Daoc is dieing game, the servers are low population (at least in the most of mmorpgs that low numbered servers should be merged very fastly). Not easy to design stuff which is group oriented for a low populated server. The problem is, hard to make stay new players if they cant group, they cant achieve things with groups or guilds... and only new breed keeps alive the mmorpgs.
it is very obvious people here not used with more people raids, 20 people is zerg, etc. Catacombs tries to make a content for low numbered raids (15-25ppl) imo it is a good idea.
What i saw from DR is ... well, bullshit. CLs are just grind and try to solve something with balance as i see, but i dont think it will work well. Mounts are good, however there is no mainstream mmorpg now w/o mounts, it was very late to implement them in daoc, so i am not in awe, but i know have to get a mount, it is important in all mmorpgs, so will be here too. Anyway, DR imo just a expansion with some things (drops, champ weapons) what u have to be done, rewards really nothing a la everquest expansion, my best guess it is made for fund the upcoming mmorpg of mythic.

[Elrandhir]

Have to say I wouldent miss the Catacombs part atall really if it was removed, and I have tried out some instances but not really liked them that much.

[Aardh]

I like catacombs alot. Fast and good exp and nice drops. Not to mention new mobs and new areas to explore. But its also nothing you NEED to do to be able to compete. Its more of a "free" expansion. Go there if you want. Stay out of it if you dont feel you want anything from there

Think its the best expansion so far tbh

[Silverbirch]

I've found that the task dungeons has encouraged groups, certainly on Gareth. My chant and Druid both went through them from 30 - 50, although I did level using my 3 accounts for the first 20 ish levels. I also Pl'd my ranger to 20 , and then have levelled him pretty much through the bg's.

I also did all the Cata quests, which to be honest are so easy you'd be daft not to. Of course on Non ToA, Cata takes over as THE place to get template armour, weaps etc. You can almost guarantee a DS group every night if you want one.

So with all the other gfx and content stuff, I think Cata has been the best expansion yet pound for pound. I've only just got DR,and its too early to say how much of an impact it will have on the DAoC endgame - bt I doubt it will have anything like the effect of ToA

[Xest]

I think I can see what you mean about the content because I know a good few people were very dissappointed that there was not a much bigger change. Open zones like the frontlines especially closer to the boss mobs are a challenge for a decent group because the repop rate is so high. The point is they are doable if you get a decent group and it is nice to recapture that group experience that vanished for me personally once I hit ToA.

As Asterixxx said last night we returned with an adjusted setup and managed to cut right through to the Warlord very quickly but that was only possible after the previous recon session. It remains challenging enough and the items are of high utility to help finish off templates.

So yes I agree the content is not significantly different but there is a depth in the design of the exisitng system and how they used it. So far I have found it to be very well balanced and quite enjoyable to play. I am looking forward to tackling Darkspire, but all in its own time.

I think you can find the same experience in ToA if you look for it.

Certainly doing ML1/2/3 as 1fg is pretty good fun and challenging. Also soloing GoV/WH/Phoebus/Battler/Malice were pretty amusing and challenging for example.

[Downy]

I think you can find the same experience in ToA if you look for it.

Certainly doing ML1/2/3 as 1fg is pretty good fun and challenging. Also soloing GoV/WH/Phoebus/Battler/Malice were pretty amusing and challenging for example.

Challenging? Get pet char with ml9,fop bot and speed class and you done,kiting and healing might be bit breaking but still would not call it challenging.